the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Citizen dialog for transparent process

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Suwannee County sinkholes —WCTV

Sinkholes in
Seffner, Fort Myers,
Tallahassee,
and now even closer.
Follow the Withlacoochee River south to the Suwannee River,
and two counties south of us in Suwannee County, Florida,
they've got dozens of sinkholes,
one of them massive, with another one this month,
including apparently a cavern under some yards.
This is in the same Floridan Aquifer that underlies Lowndes County,
where we had
a road drop into a sinkhole three years ago
and sinkholes were discovered under a man's garage and yard last year.

Mikell Cook says he and his neighbors have learned more about
Geology than they ever cared to since last summer when Tropical
Storm Debby swept through much of Florida leaving Live Oak and
surrounding areas peppered with sinkholes.

He and his neighbors live in the town of McAlpin, where

just his
property and the one next to it play host to more than 60 sinkholes
including one massive one, known as the McAlpin Grand Canyon.

And more than half a year later it continues, another one just
opened up Thursday. These neighbors believe there's a whole cavern
under their yards they didn't know about until Debby.

"What's so scary about it is you never know when they're going to
break out, how big they're going to be and how devastating they're
going to be," said Mikell Cook.

Unlike some reporters farther south, Greg Gullberg knows there are
causes for sinkholes:

Sinkholes can be triggered by heavy rainfall, heavy drought and
excessive pumping of groundwater. Homeowners should look for warning
signs. Sinkholes come in clusters, so look for cracks in the walls
and depressions in the yard.

Warning signs like this, under Michael McCormick's
house and
garage right here in Lowndes County?